Silver Hawk 1x02 -- Time Snare
by Alpha2099
Summary: Captain Winchester and chief engineer Commander Skye visit the planet Litix Alpha to perform maintenance on a Federation base. Meanwhile, Commander Steele and the crew discover an unidentified vessel with cryogenically frozen bodies inside.
1. Chapter 1

_Captain's Log, Stardate 81070.3_

_The _Silver Hawk _is in orbit around the planet Litix Alpha. The planet is in a remote section of Federation space and serves primarily as a rehabilitation center for various types of criminals. The center is in need of enhancements to its core computer systems, and Starfleet has dispatched our ship to oversee the completion of the procedure._

* * *

"Because of the importance of this assignment," said Captain Winchester, "I have to go down to the planet and supervise the operation personally." He was talking to his first officer, Commander Kirby Steele, as they walked down the corridor of Deck 7.

"You don't sound very excited," said Steele. "I thought most captains would like going down on an away mission instead of being cooped up on the ship."

Winchester shrugged. "This isn't going to be very exciting," he said. "The planet's surface is mostly a desert. It's virtually uninhabitable unless you have a contained community, much like this rehab complex. The design of these places usually isn't very good, either. It's too clinical for me."

"I guess being up here isn't any better," said Steele. "There isn't really anything that needs worked on at the moment, so all anyone can do is twiddle their thumbs while we're in orbit."

"Try out the holodeck," said Winchester. "Let me know how you like it."

Steele pondered this suggestion, scratching at his short, sandy brown hair. "Maybe I should do that," he said. "Might be fun."

The pair reached the turbolift. "You'll have to wait for the next one, Kirby," said Winchester. "I'm going down to Engineering. I need Commander Skye to accompany me to the planet so she can reprogram the computer core."

"Understood," said Steele. "Try not to have too much fun without me."

Winchester grinned and leaned against the back wall of the lift. "Engineering," he said to the computer. The turbolift began its swift descent to the lower decks.

* * *

Down in the engineering section, Lieutenant Commander Madison Skye was hunched over a master systems display console. It looked very much like a table, built low to the ground with a flat top surface. On the surface was a detailed wireframe breakdown of every critical system aboard the _Silver Hawk_. Skye focused her gaze as she scanned deck by deck, making sure everything was in order. The rest of the section was relatively quiet, with the other officers busy doing various tasks at terminals scattered around the tube-like hallway. A few yards from the table where Skye was standing, the gigantic cylindrical warp core pulsed and hummed in a soothing rhythm.

Skye's focus was broken with Winchester's arrival. "Stand up straight, Commander," he said with a charming smile. Skye jumped at the sound of his voice. It was just deep enough to cut through the pulsing of the warp core and startle her. Her voice, by contrast, was much lighter in tone.

"Sorry, sir," she said as she turned to face him. She had to look up a bit because he was several inches taller than her, but she never felt intimidated by the difference in height.

"Relax, Madison, I was just joking," Winchester said. "I thought I'd come and take a look at what you've been doing down here before we go to Litix Alpha."

"Well," Skye said, making a sweeping gesture toward the warp core, "I've been trying to improve our engine efficiency. Even though this is a brand-new ship, these warp cores have a sort of 'factory setting', if you will, and it can almost always be improved upon." She led him down the hallway into the open area where the core was stationed. From up close, its size was all the more staggering. It extended multiple levels both upward and downward. The central shaft glowed a pale blue as matter and antimatter flowed through it. "Through a little bit of reconfiguration with the phase inverters, I think I've managed to raise our cruising speed to Warp 8.5." Skye beamed at Winchester as she described her work.

Winchester nodded approvingly. "Very impressive," he said.

"I'm also working on programming more recipes into the ship's replicators," Skye continued, leading Winchester over to a replicator located near her usual work station. "All ships come with some really basic things like water, coffee, and toast, but I'm trying to get some more sophisticated food and drinks in there. Go ahead, try it out."

Winchester looked at the wall-mounted unit, pondering what to try. "Scrambled eggs with a side of bacon," he said to the replicator.

Skye groaned. "Belay that order," she countered. The replicator chirped in response. "Captain, that's not very original," she said. "Try something more adventurous. Think of something you really like and that you're probably going to eat a lot in your ready room while you're working."

Winchester folded his arms across his chest and stared at Skye for a moment, clearly put off by what she said about his first choice. He took a deep breath and turned back to the replicator. "Okay, let's try something more complicated," he said. "I want a fish sandwich. I specifically want a blue catfish, fried of course, and I want coleslaw on top of the fish." He looked at Skye again. "That's how we do it where I live back on Earth," he said.

Skye smiled. "Good choice," she said. "That'll be a nice test for the replicator."

The service tray on the replicator glowed and buzzed. When the light dimmed, there was a white bowl sitting in the tray. Inside the bowl was a brown liquid with a spoon sticking out of it. Winchester picked up the bowl and looked at it with disdain. He sniffed the liquid, but it had no discernible smell. He scooped a spoonful to look at it more closely. The liquid seemed to be thick and viscous. Still unsure of what it was, he did the only reasonable thing and tasted it. Once he did, he slowly turned to face Skye and narrowed his eyes at her.

"This is chocolate milk," he said. "I asked for a fish sandwich, and it gave me chocolate milk in a bowl. With a spoon, no less."

Skye quickly grabbed the bowl from him and put it back on the tray. She tapped some buttons on the control panel and the bowl dematerialized. "I still haven't worked out all the bugs," she said with a huff. She began playing with her dark brown hair, which she did when she was flustered. It was in a ponytail, so there wasn't much she could do with it, but it was obvious she was upset at being embarrassed in front of her captain.

Winchester chuckled. "Get a team together and meet me in the main transporter room," he said. "The sooner we get this job over with, the happier I'll be."

* * *

Winchester arrived in Transporter Room 1. Steele was there waiting for him, chatting with the transport operator. "Are you that eager to see me go?" asked Winchester.

Steele chuckled. "No, I just wanted to see the transporter in action. None of us have had the chance to use it yet."

The transporter unit was the same design as any other starship, with six individual pads arranged in a hexagonal pattern and an oversized pad in the center for small cargo. The pads were on a raised platform in the room, and the back of the unit was shielded with a super-tensile glass wall. The wall was backlit and glowed a pale yellow. On the ceiling, directly above the pads, were molecular imaging scanners. There was one over each pad. The scanners were designed to resemble a mirror image of the pads below, and the result was a very symmetric look.

Steele looked at his commanding officer and sighed. "Okay, I admit it, I'm already bored," he said.

"Would you like to come down with Madison and me?" asked Winchester. He grinned, figuring what Steele would answer.

"I'm not _that _bored," Steele said, smiling. "I'll find something to do."

The transporter room doors slid open. Skye and two other engineers - a man and a woman - entered. They were each carrying medium-sized briefcases, each filled with the necessary equipment for their job.

"Sorry if we're late, Captain," said Skye.

"No harm done, Commander," said Winchester. "I assume we're all ready to go, then." He joined Skye and the engineers on the transporter pad. "Hold down the fort, Kirby," he said. "We shouldn't be gone long."

Steele nodded and looked back to the transport operator. "Energize," he said. The operator tapped a few buttons and slid his fingers up along the energizer dials. The pads glowed white and the four officers' bodies were enveloped in a blue light. Within five seconds, they dematerialized from the ship.

* * *

The transporter on Litix Alpha lit up as the officers materialized on the pads. Winchester instinctively looked around the room as soon as his body was made whole again. As he had expected, even the transporter room was very clinical in design. The walls were a muted shade of grey, and there were no special designs painted anywhere. Along one wall was a row of isolinear sub-processors for the transporter, and of course there was the control unit directly in front of him, but really nothing else. He turned his attention to the man standing in front of the transport controls. He was an older man, short and round. His head was bald, but he had a small grey beard on his face. He wore a command-branch uniform, and the three pips on his collar denoted his rank of Commander, the usual position held by leaders of small installations such as this.

"Captain Winchester, welcome to Litix Alpha!" he said. His voice was deep but clearly jovial in tone. "I'm Commander Stephen Simon. I'm in charge of operations here."

Winchester stepped off the platform and shook Simon's hand. He gestured to Skye behind him. "This is my chief engineer, Lieutenant Commander Madison Skye. She and her team will be the ones upgrading your computer systems."

"Good, good," said Simon. "It's high time we had an update around here. When you run a place like this, you've got to be at the top of your game."

Skye and the engineers also stepped off the transporter. "I trust the place is safe right now, isn't it? I've never liked prisons," Skye said.

Simon chuckled. "We prefer to think of it as a rehabilitation center. And don't worry, we don't have anyone truly dangerous. The people here have committed mostly minor offenses. They're here for a few weeks or months and then they go back to their regular lives when they've completed the rehab. Now, if you'd like, follow me and I'll show you where everything is." He started to leave the room.

Skye walked up to Winchester as they approached the door. "Well, at least this is a slight change of scenery for me," she said. "It's good to be out of Engineering for a bit."

"Don't plan on going outside for a tan," Winchester said. "We're here to work."

Skye pointed to her already dark complexion. "Look at me," she said. "I don't need a tan." She looked over Winchester and noticed his complexion was fairly light. "Maybe you could get one, though," she said with a giggle.

Winchester rolled his eyes. "Let's just get going," he said.

"You sound so pained to be here, Captain," said Skye. "For me the time is going to fly by since I have all the work to do."

"But my part here is mostly a formality," said Winchester. "Officially I have to oversee the operation and make sure everything goes smoothly. I see no reason why it won't, which means for the next several hours I'm going to be bored senseless."

"Well," said Skye, "maybe it's better to be bored sometimes. I mean, do you _want _something to happen while we're down here?"

Winchester paused and thought about her question. "I suppose not," he said. "But I'm still not going to like it."

Skye smiled. "Your objection is noted, Captain," she said playfully. "Now let's go. We don't want to keep Commander Simon waiting and I'm sure we'd all like to get this done quickly."


	2. Chapter 2

Steele sat in the captain's ready room, bouncing a tennis ball off the wall. Every few minutes he would pause and look around the room, noting the blueness of the room and thinking what could be added to make the place feel more personable. Winchester hadn't put much up on the walls yet, but hanging over the couch was a portrait that showed the various incarnations of the starship _Enterprise_ through the years. He smiled, knowing just how much his friend loved reading about the history of the Federation flagship.

Steele turned to look out the large window behind the captain's desk. From here, he had an excellent view of Litix Alpha as the _Silver Hawk_ orbited the planet. Due to high concentrations of argon in the atmosphere, the planet had a bright violet hue. To Steele, it seemed like such an odd color for a planet, but at the same time it was very fascinating. He sighed, unable to keep his boredom at bay for long. Finally he decided it was time to try out the holodeck. He had a sports program he wanted to use, and he knew he could easily pass the time with that.

Steele left the ready room and made his way to the aft turbolift on the bridge. "Mister Jordan, you have the bridge," he said in passing.

"Aye sir," said Jordan. Just then, he heard a beep from the tactical panel. "Commander," he said, "an unidentified ship has just appeared on our long-range sensors."

Steele stopped just as he approached the turbolift, his brow furrowed in confusion. "There aren't many ships that pass by this way, but those that do are usually Federation ships. Put it on screen."

The screen switched from a view of the planet to the view of the ship. It was long, grey, and mostly rectangular. Toward the front, the top and bottom converged in an arc to a single point. There were two long cylindrical structures jutting out from either side that appeared to be thrusters. There was only one symbol on the top of the ship, a starburst shape that was yellow around the edges but black in the center.

"Analysis, Mister Newell," said Steele.

Ensign Newell's hands were gliding along the Ops panel, pushing buttons as he scanned the ship. "The ship appears to be undamaged," he said. "It's about twenty meters long, unarmed, and there are no detectable life signs."

Steele folded his arms and wrinkled his nose. "If it's not damaged, there wouldn't be any reason to abandon it," he said.

"Maybe something went wrong with the ship's computer systems," Jordan posited. "Perhaps the life support system failed."

"Maybe," said Steele. He pointed to the thrusters on the sides. "Are those warp engines?" he asked.

"No, sir," said Newell. "It seems like this ship is incapable of warp speed."

"Then they couldn't have come from very far away," Steele concluded. He turned to Lieutenant Phillips, the navigator. "Victoria, are there any habitable planets anywhere in this system?"

Phillips shook her head. "Any planet in this system would require a domed facility, much like the rehab center on Litix Alpha," she said. "It's possible that the owners of the ship could live in an environment that humans can't, but even still, the nearest planet in any direction is Litix Beta, which is six months away at full impulse power."

Steele scratched his sandy brown hair. "This doesn't make sense," he said. With a short sigh, he added, "Well, at least now we have something to do. Mister Jordan, get a tractor beam on that ship and haul it into Shuttlebay 4. Once it's in, join me down there. We're going to take a look at this." He tapped his communicator badge. "Steele to sickbay, have Doctor Campbell meet us in the cargo bay."

* * *

Winchester, Skye, and the engineers entered the main computer room of the facility. The walls were covered with banks of isolinear sub-processors, and the covers for each bank gave the room a dark grey color. At the back of the room was a small square computer unit that served as the central processor.

"So, explain to me what this process is going to entail," Winchester said to Skye. "And be concise. Just because I had to learn the finer points of engineering to pass the academy doesn't mean I want to hear all the technical jargon that goes with it."

Skye began unpacking tools from the cases she and the engineers brought with them. "Basically," she said, "we're going to be replacing some of the isolinear circuitry in the computer systems with the more current bio-neural circuitry. It won't be the whole system, just certain parts of it. In order to do that, we need to shut down the computer core. That's going to be a problem, though, because since this is a prison – albeit a low-level one – if the core goes down all the force fields will drop and the prisoners could get loose."

Winchester nodded. "I thought that might be an issue," he said. "Fortunately we don't have any serial killers or other serious criminals here, so the chance of a major jailbreak is small."

"That's true," said Skye, "but we still want to keep the power running through the facility while we work. The first thing we'll do, then, is establish a comm link through the _Silver Hawk_'s computer core. In effect, all the major computer operations for the facility will be run through our ship. That way we can do our work and all the prisoners stay locked up." She smiled as she concluded, pleased with her response.

"Very well, then," said Winchester. "Get to work, Commander. I'll be in Commander Simon's office passing time." He grinned as a thought crossed his mind. "I think I see some drinking in our future."

Skye chuckled. "Try not to work _too _hard, Captain," she said as Winchester left the room.

* * *

Steele and Jordan arrived at Shuttlebay 4. A handful of security personnel were already in position near the rear hatch of the mysterious ship, phasers drawn in case of trouble. Around the sides, a few technicians were scanning the ship with their tricorders to gain more information about it.

"Have we figured out a way to open this yet?" asked Steele.

"It's hard to say, sir," said one of the technicians as he approached Steele. "The design of this ship doesn't appear to match anything we've seen before. It's hard to know exactly what we're looking at."

Steele noticed the technician could not fix his gaze for very long before his beady brown eyes darted away. His nerves were getting to him. It seemed reasonable, for he looked very young and probably inexperienced. Tiny beads of sweat hung at the edge of his dark hair, and Steele would not have noticed were it not for the man's tan skin. "What's your name, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"Jenkins, sir. Forgive me, I'm not used to taking the lead on these types of assignments, sir," the lieutenant replied. "Normally Commander Skye would be doing it."

"Well, she's not here right now," said Steele, "but I'm sure you can handle it. Get yourself together and get that back hatch open."

"Yes, sir." Jenkins went back to the ship, running his tricorder along the hatch.

"The younger officers get nervous in the presence of senior staff," said Jordan to Steele. "Give them a little time and I'm sure they'll loosen up."

"I'd be happier with them _opening_ up that hatch," Steele answered. "This is the only thing keeping me from boredom on this mission." He looked around the shuttlebay. "Where's Doctor Campbell?" he shouted out to the room.

"I'm here! Sorry if I'm late," echoed Campbell's high-pitched voice. Steele noticed he was not wearing his usual blue overcoat, instead opting for the standard black uniform with the blue stripe along the shoulders. Campbell was trotting across the bay floor to meet Steele and Jordan more quickly, but because of his bulk he looked rather silly as his body bounced up and down. Steele and Jordan exchanged glances and tried not to laugh.

"I came as quickly as I could," Campbell panted, "but I was in the middle of an experiment, you see."

Steele nodded, a grin cracking through his face. "You know, Doctor, you didn't have to run across the room like that. The ship's not going anywhere," he said. Jordan started to chuckle, but Steele quickly elbowed him in the ribs to silence him.

Campbell straightened his shoulders and began to blush lightly. "I suppose not," he said. "I hope I didn't look too foolish as I came over here."

"Well," said Steele, "as long as you promise to be on time more often, I'll refrain from reporting this to Captain Winchester." He winked at Campbell to punctuate his sentence.

Just then, a hissing sound emanated from the ship. Startled, Lieutenant Jenkins jumped back as the rear hatch began to swing outward, opening the ship.

"Well done, Lieutenant," said Steele. "I knew you could do it."

"T-thank you, sir," Jenkins said. He hurried away as Steele, Jordan, and Campbell approached the opening.

The inside of the ship was fairly dark, and the light from inside the shuttlebay was not enough to give the officers any sense of what was inside. Jordan took a flashlight from the wall of the shuttlebay and led the group inside, ducking just a bit due to the low ceiling. Being that the ship was small, it made sense to the three men that there was not much inside, but they were amazed at the sparseness of computer controls. There were two small units near the rear hatch, but there was no indication that either was active. Toward the front of the vessel, there were two large rectangular objects that appeared to be containers of some sort. It was on these containers that the men noticed a lot of buttons and panels, though they could not tell what their function was.

Jordan took out a tricorder to scan the containers. "The dimensions are large enough to store an adult humanoid," he noted. "The tricorder is picking up a lot of complex circuitry all connected to a central cooling unit. There also appears to be some other circuitry dedicated to biological use."

"These could be preservation units for a science vessel," said Campbell. "Whoever controls this ship could have been collecting plant or animal life from another planet."

"But there's no one here controlling the ship," said Steele. "Unless maybe they did it remotely, but I don't see how. There's barely anything here to move this ship along."

Campbell knelt down and examined one of the panels on the container. "One of these buttons is bigger than the rest," he said. "It's also red, which stands out from the others which are all yellow. Maybe that will open it."

Jordan checked it with his tricorder. "It does seem to be some sort of primary function panel," he said, rubbing his beard. He looked at Campbell. "Only one way to find out." He pushed the button, which chirped and began to blink red. Jordan and Campbell backed away quickly as steam poured out of the container. The top separated and rotated upward, similar to a treasure chest. When the steam dissipated, the three mean approached slowly and looked inside.

"My God," said Campbell, "there's a man in there!" He took out his tricorder and scanned the body. "It's definitely a humanoid male, but his physiognomy isn't human. It's nothing I've ever seen before."

"Can you determine his age, or more importantly if he's alive?" asked Steele.

"It's hard to say, but judging by the wrinkles on the skin, I'd say this man is in his in forties or fifties," said Campbell. "That's assuming he ages like a human, of course. I'm also picking up extremely faint life signs from the body." He snapped his fingers. "Of course! These are cryogenic storage units. It makes sense now. We need to get these to sickbay right away."

"Agreed," said Steele. He walked back to the rear hatch and shouted to the security officers outside. "You there! Give us a hand with these!"

* * *

"What can I get you to drink, Beau?" Simon asked.

"Does your replicator know how to make a Jamaican Me Happy?" replied Winchester.

Simon groaned. "Really, Beau, you've been out in space for far too long. You need a real drink, not that tasteless fruity garbage." He walked over to his replicator. "Give me two Andorian ales," he said. The replicator generated two thin glasses of the bright blue drink. "Try this," said Simon as he handed one to Winchester. "I think you'll like it."

Winchester took a sip. The taste was quite strong, enough to make him pucker his lips. He also felt his throat start to burn. "Damn, that's potent," he said.

Simon smiled. "I know," he said. "I was able to override the replicator's synthehol component and replace it with real alcohol. There's nothing like the real thing."

"Indeed," said Winchester, gingerly placing the rest of his glass on the nearby table. He sat down and looked out the window of Simon's office. He had a panoramic view of the planet's landscape, though there were few features to speak of. Being a desert planet, all one could see outside were large dunes of sand. Dusty clouds swept in with accompanying winds. The pink sky was a little jarring to Winchester, even though he knew the scientific explanation for it.

"When you first arrive," said Simon as he pointed out the window, "it's a breathtaking sight. But trust me, spend a few years here and you'll grow tired of it pretty quickly." He sat down at his desk. "I never put a lot of things in my office because I thought I'd be transferred after a few months. Wishful thinking, I suppose."

Winchester swiveled his chair to face Simon. "Someone has to get stuck with the unexciting jobs," he said. "Not everyone gets to be a famous captain."

"I never cared for being famous," Simon said, taking another sip of his ale. "I just want to be out there among the stars. I envy the ships that pass this way. I think of the crews on board who are living out their dreams, and I feel like I'm wasting my life away in this damn desert. Be thankful for what you've got, Beau. At least you get to be out there, seeing things not many people have the privilege of seeing."

Winchester had no response for that. He could tell that Simon's feelings were genuine. Most Starfleet entrants have grand dreams of traversing the stars, but very few see their dreams realized. He truly was one of the lucky ones, but until he saw someone who had less than him that, he realized he had never understood that fact.

"Anyway," Simon continued, "I shouldn't be talking about myself. I want to talk about you."

"Me? What for?" asked Winchester.

"Well, even though news is slow to get out here, I heard about the Motavia incident," Simon said.

Winchester shrugged. "I'm lucky to still have a ship," he said. "I'll take any mission Starfleet will give me, even a menial one like this."

"You know what they're doing, don't you?" Simon probed.

"Of course I do," Winchester answered. "They practically told me as much. They've pushed me into the background until they clear things up with the Romulans."

Simon chuckled. "Beau, they didn't just push you to the back. They pushed you _way_ to the back. You may still have a ship, but be honest with yourself – you know the _Ambassador_-class is an old line. It's practically eighty years old, and even though they may have grafted new technology into it to keep it alive a little longer, it's not at the forefront of the fleet anymore. They stuck you in an ancient ship running errands just so you can be forgotten about."

"I don't believe that," said Winchester. "Maybe it's just temporary. In time, when things blow over, I may get reassigned to a better ship. But I'm quite happy with what I've got."

"Keep thinking that," Simon scoffed. "See how far it gets you."

Winchester picked up his glass of ale. "As long as I have a ship to fly," he said, "I'm satisfied with whatever direction my life goes. Until the day comes where I'm stuck behind a desk looking after criminals on a no-name planet, I have no reason to be jaded about anything." He downed the rest of his ale in one gulp and forcefully thrust the glass onto Simon's desk.

The comm unit chirped. "Skye to Winchester."

"Go ahead, Madison," Winchester replied.

"The comm link's been established," Skye said. "I've shut down the main computer systems from the facility. Everything's being run through the _Silver Hawk _now."

"Acknowledged. Keep up the good work," Winchester said. He turned his attention back to Simon. "How about another ale? I rather liked that one."


	3. Chapter 3

In sickbay, Doctor Campbell had extracted the unknown man from his cryogenic unit and placed him on one of the patient with a complex medical device covering his entire body from the shoulders down. The device was arch-shaped and beige in color, with numerous control panels and data screens blanketing it. Campbell moved from panel to panel pushing buttons and adjusting different settings to help thaw the man and bring him back to consciousness. Now that he was out of the unit, his facial features were more describable. Overall it was humanoid in shape, with a few differences. He had no hair to speak of, and there were bony ridges on each side of his face that protruded from his temples and extended down to his jawline. A light red stripe ran across his forehead, which Campbell assumed to be genetic.

Steele entered the sickbay and approached Campbell. "How's it coming, Doctor?" he asked.

Campbell looked up from the device and rubbed his eyes. "It's going to take some time before he regains consciousness," he said. "Coming out of a cryogenic freeze is never a quick process. The effects can vary from species to species. Since I don't know anything about this man's physiognomy, I can't say when he'll come out of it." He motioned for Steele to follow him to another room where the two cryogenic units had been placed.

"What about the second unit?" Steele asked. "I'm guessing there was someone in there as well."

"There was," said Campbell, patting the lid of the closed unit in question. "But something must have gone wrong during the flight and damaged the machinery that controls this unit. When I opened the lid, I was looking at a corpse. Since the unit is airtight, he was perfectly preserved, but I have no way of knowing when he died."

Steele shook his head. "That won't get us any closer to figuring out where they came from," he said.

"I expect you can get all the answers you want when our living patient regains consciousness," said Campbell. "Until then, you'll just have to wait. I'll let you know when he's come around."

"Bridge to Commander Steele," said Ensign Newell's voice over the comm.

"Go ahead, Ensign," said Steele.

"I think you'd better come up here, sir," said Newell. "We might have a little bit of a problem on our hands."

"On my way," Steele answered. "Well, at least I've still got something to do," he said to Campbell. "Keep at it, Doctor. Let me know if there's any progress."

* * *

Newell was seated at the science terminal in the back of the bridge. He was leaning forward slightly, his chin resting in his palm as he studied the terminal screen intently. He broke his gaze when he heard the turbolift open and saw Commander Steele step onto the bridge.

"What have you got for me, Ensign?" Steele asked.

Newell motioned for Steele to look at the terminal screen. "This just popped up on our sensors," he said. "You can see on the screen that Litix Alpha is in the center of the grid display; it's that orange circle. The smaller grey circle is our ship in orbit. But look at the upper left corner of the grid." In the corner was a wide, light purple wave-shaped object moving rapidly toward the ship and the planet.

"What is that?" asked Steele.

"It's an ion storm," Newell answered. "Looks like a big one. It's headed right for us."

"That shouldn't be a problem," said Steele. "Ion storms can't cause physical damage to a starship, even with our shields down."

"Physical damage, no," Newell said, "but with such a strong ionic polarization, some of our computer systems may not function properly for the duration of the storm. Critical systems like life support have multiple redundancies for added protection from things like this, but the comm link to the facility on the planet will be cut off."

"If we raise our shields, would that protect the link?" asked Steele.

"No, sir," said Newell. "The link is basically a beam of information that runs from the ship to the facility. When the ion storm hits, the beam will break because it's outside our shields."

"And because the computer core has already been shut down on the facility," Steele concluded, "they'll be powerless down there."

"Correct, sir," Newell replied.

Steele paused, contemplating what he should do next. "How long do we have before the storm reaches us?"

"About an hour," said Newell.

Steele went to the tactical panel and opened communications. "_Silver Hawk _to Winchester," he called.

"Winchester here," the captain answered.

"We've got a little problem, sir," said Steele. "An ion storm is about an hour away from reaching the planet. We're going to lose the comm link unless the upgrades are completed in time."

"Understood," said Winchester. "I'll tell Commander Skye to hurry. In the meantime, see what you can do up there to strengthen the link."

"Yes, sir." Steele closed communications and turned back to Newell. "Ensign, go down to engineering and work on enhancing the strength of the link. If we can build it up to withstand the storm, even if for just a bit, it'll give Commander Skye more time to finish the upgrades."

"Aye, sir." Newell headed for the turbolift.

* * *

Winchester walked back to the computer core, still feeling some of the adverse effects from the Andorian ale. He could still function, but he was certainly buzzed. His head felt heavy, which was usually his way of knowing when to stop. Looking around the facility, he realized that even in a buzzed state, the place still looked bland. The walls were a clinical grey color with very little on them, save for a few computer panels here and there. Since he was in the administrative wing, he couldn't hear any chatter from inmates. They were several levels down, below the planet's surface. Upon reaching the door, he stepped inside and leaned against the wall. The ale had some slight effects on his balance. He could see Skye and her technicians working on the system, replacing blocks of isolinear chips with bio-neural ones. Visually there was not much difference, except that Winchester assumed their color coding was different.

"What's your status, Madison?" he asked.

Skye turned from the terminal she was facing and beamed at her captain. She was still as cheerful as the moment she arrived. "We're making good progress, sir," she said. "Another couple of hours and some diagnostics, and I think we'll be done."

"Unfortunately," said Winchester, "you don't have another couple of hours. You have just one. There's an ion storm approaching fast. The _Silver Hawk _won't be able to maintain the comm link while it's passing through."

Skye frowned. "That's no good," she said. "I'm going to need more time than that."

"I told Commander Steele to strengthen the link as best he could," Winchester said, "although I'm sure you would know how to do that better than he would."

"Well," said Skye, "they could divert power from some of the non-critical systems, but even that won't help much." She briskly walked to a computer wall unit and tapped some buttons. A sensor grid appeared showing the planet and the path of the storm. "Nuts," she said. "If it were a smaller storm, I would say just wait and let it pass through. This looks like it'll knock us out for several hours."

"But even without power," Winchester countered, "you can still upgrade the systems, can't you? The computers here won't be affected by the storm."

"You're right, they won't," Madison said. "The problem is that the place is currently being powered through the _Silver Hawk_, effectively. We can still work, and when we finish we can bring the systems on-line, but for a period of time we won't have any power. That means no force fields securing the inmates."

Winchester scratched his head. "There ought to be some emergency generators around the place. I'll talk to Simon about it," he said. "Work quickly, Madison. That's all I can say."

Skye nodded and went back to the terminal where she had been working.

* * *

In sickbay, the night shift was underway. The shift consisted of just one worker, a young female lieutenant. She usually did not have much to worry about, as most of the patients were asleep. She made the rounds from bed to bed, checking each patient's vital signs. She glanced at the new patient, the one recently recovered from the mysterious ship, but Doctor Campbell gave her orders not to do anything to that patient without first consulting him. She was to contact him right away if the patient showed signs of coming out of his cryogenic state, but otherwise he should be left alone.

The lieutenant walked over to the small computer unit by Doctor Campbell's office and began recording each patient's information. Her back was turned to most of the room, and she did not see the alien's bony face twitch. The twitching was slow at first, but became increasingly faster until at last his eyes flew open. They had a bluish-grey hue to them, but no discernible pupils. The alien began breathing heavily and grunting as he tried to get out of the medical device which still restrained him on the bed.

The grunting caught the lieutenant's attention. She turned around to see the alien awake and struggling to free himself. She hurried over to the bed but was unsure what she should do. Finally she tapped her communicator badge. "Sickbay to Doctor Campbell," she said, "the new patient's awake! His breathing is pretty heavy and it looks like he's trying to get out of the full-body stabilizer."

"On my way," said Campbell. "Don't do anything until I get there."

"But what if he's in pain?" the lieutenant asked.

"Just wait," Campbell ordered. "I'm coming as quick as I can."

The lieutenant nervously watched as the alien continued squirming in the stabilizer. Only a few seconds passed after she spoke to Campbell that she decided she couldn't wait for him to arrive. She ran to a drawer and picked up a sedative hypospray, then started pushing buttons on the stabilizer to unlock it, not remembering she could just administer the sedative through the alien's neck without opening the stabilizer.

Just as she realized this mistake, the unit folded open and the alien's arms shot out toward her neck. Stunned, she dropped the hypospray and coughed for air. The alien had surprising strength. His empty eyes bored into the lieutenant's face as she writhed in pain. As he rose from the bed, he slowly lifted her by the neck until her face was about six inches above his. She kicked and flailed to no avail. Within seconds, the kicking stopped and her body fell limp and lifeless.

When the alien felt satisfied she was dead, he released his grip and let her fall roughly to the floor. He knelt beside her body and surveyed his surroundings. He snarled, exposing rows of rough, jagged yellow teeth. He ran his hands along the lieutenant's uniform and then looked down at his own clothes. His outfit was plain and brown, made from a leathery material. Something in his mind was telling him he needed to hide quickly. He dragged the lieutenant's body around the corner of the main area, toward Campbell's office. A couple minutes later, he emerged wearing the lieutenant's uniform. It was a tight fit, but he showed no sign of caring. With a quick pace he scurried out of the sickbay and fled down a corridor.

Just a few minutes after the alien escaped, Campbell arrived at sickbay.


	4. Chapter 4

Campbell sat in his office chair, visibly shaken, holding a glass of water in his hands. "I told her to wait just a little bit," he said softly to Steele, who was seated across from him. "I was coming as fast as I could."

"Don't beat yourself up too much, Doctor," Steele said. "You had no idea this would happen. She didn't either. Really, none of us would have expected this."

"She was so young," Campbell lamented. "She had a long career and a long life ahead of her." He hung his head and looked away from Steele.

Steele stood up and left the room, giving Campbell time to collect himself. In the main area, Jordan and some security members were analyzing the murder scene. "Marcus," said Steele, "I want as many available officers as you can gather covering every inch of this ship. We can't have this alien loose on the ship posing a threat to the crew."

"Security teams are already being organized," Jordan said. "I've also sent out a ship-wide message to all civilians and non-essential personnel to stay in their quarters until the situation's been resolved."

"Good," said Steele. "The less traffic we have in the corridors, the easier it'll be to spot him. Move fast, Marcus. He's already gotten a head start on us. If he disappears, there's no telling where he'll go or what he'll do."

"Agreed," said Jordan. "We'll find him, don't worry."

"If you or any of your teams encounter him," Steele continued, "don't kill him. We have to assume that what he's doing is out of fear or surprise, not malice. Stun him and put him in the brig, but do not use lethal force unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Yes, sir," said Jordan. "Will that be all?" Steele nodded and Jordan left sickbay to lead his security team.

The comm unit chirped. "Ensign Newell to Commander Steele."

"Go ahead, Ensign," said Steele.

"Sir, the ion storm has reached our position," Newell said. "We tried to strengthen the comm link, but it doesn't seem to be working very well."

Steele screwed his eyes shut and his head drooped. "Very well," he said, "notify the facility. Hopefully they can do something on their end to rectify the problem."

"Unfortunately, we can't do that," Newell said. "The storm is interfering with our communications outside of the ship."

Steele groaned. "Then they're on their own," he said. "Keep an eye on the progress of the storm. The second it passes, I need you to re-establish that link."

"Understood, sir," said Newell.

"Have you found out anything about the ship or the alien? It would really help to have some information right about now," Steele said.

"I've got a little bit," said Newell. "I can show you in the conference room."

"I'm on my way," said Steele. He thought about the remaining senior staff members who would be available. They would also want to be informed. "Find Lieutenant Phillips and have her attend too. I'll inform Commander Jordan." He looked back into Campbell's office. The doctor was still sitting down, his head hanging low, sipping his glass of water.

Steele motioned to an ensign to come over. "Look after Doctor Campbell," he said. "He's taking it pretty hard." The ensign nodded in acknowledgement. Steele turned and left sickbay.

* * *

"Captain," said Skye over the comm system, "the facility technicians have activated the emergency generators. They've informed me that there's enough power to keep the force fields in place on the holding cells."

"Finally a bit of good news," replied Winchester. "At least now we don't have to worry about a jailbreak."

"As if they had anywhere to go," Simon said with a chuckle. "Considering the conditions outside, I'd feel more comfortable in here."

"It should only be a couple more hours before the upgrade is complete," Skye continued. "The generators can easily hold out that long."

"Acknowledged," Winchester said. "Let me know when you've finished." He was back in Simon's office, sitting and staring out the window with yet another Andorian ale in his hand. Since there was literally nothing else to do, sitting and drinking was the only means of passing the time. "Why don't you guys have a holosuite here?" he asked Simon.

"Starfleet didn't think the expense was necessary," Simon said. "I keep making requests to get one, though. Maybe someday they'll agree to it." He paused, looking out the window over Winchester's shoulder. "You know, Beau," he began, "about what I said earlier…I hope you don't take it personally. I know you're a fine captain and everything. I just don't want to see you end up like me, old and grumpy and stuck on a hell-hole of a planet."

Winchester nodded. "I understand. Believe me, after what happened at Motavia, I braced for the possibility of never being the captain of a ship again. I'm fortunate to still be flying, even if I'm not doing anything exciting at the moment."

"What do you think of your crew?" Simon asked. "You like them so far?"

"I think they're a fine bunch," Winchester answered, taking a sip of ale. "Madison is a very competent engineer, Miss Phillips came highly regarded as a navigator, and Mister Jordan keeps his security detail running smoothly."

"I heard you were able to land your friend a job as first officer," Simon said.

Winchester smiled. "Admiral Tomlinson was reluctant, to be sure, but she did allow me to have Kirby on board. I think she sees him as a trickster – mostly because he is – but beyond that, he has always been the kind of person I can trust in any situation. If I had my choice of any first officer in Starfleet, I'd always pick him."

Simon returned the smile. "You're not just saying that because he's your friend?"

"Stephen," said Winchester, "I'm telling you, no matter what crisis may arise on my ship, I'm sure Kirby can handle it."

* * *

"I swear, I can't handle this," Steele said to Jordan as the turbolift sped up to the bridge.

"With respect, Commander," said Jordan as he scratched his beard, "you probably shouldn't say that in public. It would demoralize the junior officers."

"Right now, _I'm_ the one demoralized," Steele quickly replied. "There's been a murder on the ship, and the killer is loose in the corridors. I'm lucky that ion storm is messing up communications, or else I'd have to tell the captain about it."

"I think you're going to have to tell him anyway," Jordan said matter-of-factly.

"Yes, but I'd rather tell him _after_ we catch that alien," Steele said. "At least then I'll have something to show for all of this."

The turbolift doors opened on the bridge. Steele and Jordan walked to the opposite side and entered the conference room. Lieutenant Phillips was seated at a long, sleek black table. There were eight seats total – three on each long side, plus one at each end. Jordan took a seat on the long side opposite of Phillips. Ensign Newell stood at a computer screen at the far end of the room, ready to present his findings about the ship and the alien.

"No need for formalities here," said Steele as he took a seat at the end of the table. "Let's get to it, Ensign."

Newell tapped some buttons and the starburst-shaped symbol from the ship appeared on the computer screen. "It took some doing," he said, "but I managed to track down the source of this symbol. It belongs to a group known as the Yundy. That's not the name of their race, though; their race is called the Udelans. Obviously, they're from the planet Udela."

"Never heard of it," Steele admitted. "Is it anywhere near Litix Alpha?"

"No, sir," Newell said. Tapping more buttons, he changed the screen to a map of the Alpha Quadrant. "Litix Alpha is here," he said, pointing to the right side of the screen, "and Udela is over here," he finished, pointing on the left side.

"How could that be?" asked Phillips. "That's clear across the Alpha Quadrant. "Without warp speed, it would take them at least twenty years to make it over here."

"That's a good point," said Newell, "but the story gets even weirder. According to Starfleet records, which are admittedly sparse on this particular race, the Udelans wiped themselves out in a civil war nearly three hundred years ago."

Steele raised his eyebrows. "This is sounding more and more far-fetched by the minute," he said. "Please tell me you've found something to explain all of this."

"I think I have, sir," said Newell. "I looked at the Udelan ship's flight path when we encountered it and tried working backwards." He tapped the screen and zoomed in on a particular grid of space. "This is Sector 726-014," he explained. "It's about three days away at Warp 8. In this particular region, there are numerous reports about a wormhole that appears intermittently."

Steele ran his hand through his curly brown hair, trying to process what Newell was saying. "Go on," he prompted.

"As we all know," Newell continued, "there's only ever been one reported case of a stable wormhole. That one is sitting in Bajoran space, just outside of the space station Deep Space Nine. Unstable wormholes, by definition, are unfit for ships to travel through, because their unpredictability poses too great a risk. With all that in mind, even I must admit that the conclusion I made requires a leap of faith to believe."

"And that conclusion is?" said Steele.

"I think this ship was launched from Udela at least three hundred years ago," said Newell. "While in flight, it ran into the other end of this unstable wormhole. Instead of being destroyed inside the wormhole, the ship remained trapped there for all these years, and only recently did the wormhole re-open and allow the ship to exit."

Steele let out a low whistle. "That's one hell of a theory, Ensign," he said. "And as crazy as it sounds, it's the best we've got to work with."

"There's more," said Newell.

Steele sighed and buried his face in his hands. "Of course there is," he said. "What else have you got?"

"Back when the Udelan society was intact," Newell said, "this group – the Yundy – engaged in a rather intricate form of space piracy. They would often launch stripped-down ships just like the one we found and place one or two people inside in a crude cryogenic chamber. Because the design of the ship was so basic, any other passing ships would mistake it as an oversized escape pod and bring it aboard to examine. Naturally, they would discover the cryogenic capsules and open them, thus releasing the Udelans. When they awoke, they would covertly sabotage key systems on the ship and steal whatever they thought was valuable. If the ship's crew was small enough, they would take the ship for themselves. Otherwise, they just found escape pods and left."

"So what you're telling me," Steele said, trying to summarize, "is that we have inadvertently stumbled upon a three-hundred-year-old trap, and that the Udelan running loose on the _Silver Hawk_ is a pirate who plans to steal whatever he can or sabotage whatever he can and then take off. Is that what I'm hearing?"

Newell paused, contemplated Steele's summary, then nodded. "That's correct, sir."

Steele and Jordan exchanged glances, then Steele turned to Phillips and exchanged glances with her. "This is going to be one hell of a report I'll have to file with Captain Winchester," he said finally.

"Since we have an idea of what the Udelan's plan is," Jordan said, "we might be able to narrow our search and find him quicker."

"Well," said Phillips, "I'm sure starships have changed a lot in three hundred years, but if I were a pirate looking to do some damage, the first place I'd go is engineering."

"Good thought, Lieutenant," said Steele. "Mister Jordan, tell your teams to converge on engineering. Have them come in from as many different directions as possible. I don't want him to have any exits available."

"Understood, sir," said Jordan.

"That's all for now," Steele said. "Everyone's dismissed."


	5. Chapter 5

Steele and Jordan led a team of six security officers down to main engineering. The ever-present hum of the ship's engines provided the only noise in the corridors.

"I've never seen the place this empty," Steele said quietly to Jordan. "It's amazing how something as trivial as a person walking through the corridor becomes noticeable when it's not there."

"It's a little creepy, I'll admit," Jordan said.

As the group approached the main opening to engineering, Jordan signaled for two officers to take posts at nearby intersections. The rest of the group continued to advance. When they arrived at the opening, they separated into two groups of three, each taking a side of the wall.

Steele peeked around the corner and looked down the long main hallway of engineering. It was empty, like everywhere else on the ship, and the only sound came from the deep, pulsing hum of the gigantic warp core. "I can't tell if he's here or not," Steele whispered to Jordan. "I'm going in. Cover us."

"Sir," Jordan interjected, "as the head of security, I think I should be the one to go in first. Your safety is more important, after all."

"The safety of the ship is more important than anything," Steele said. "As first officer, I'm responsible for that." He paused, looked down the hall one more time, then drew a breath. "Tell you what," he said, "we'll go in together. I'll take the inside wall, you take the outside."

Jordan nodded. He and the rest of the group drew their phasers and moved in, slowly advancing toward the warp core. Two officers hung back to protect the exit, leaving Steele and Jordan with one guard each. "Any guesses what he might be looking for?" asked Jordan.

"Well, I'm betting he's never seen a Federation ship before," said Steele, "but he's probably smart enough to know this is engineering, and it's not much of a leap to assume the warp core is what he wants. He'll probably try to take the dilithium crystals out."

The four officers reached the warp core. The circular dilithium housing unit was still glowing white, meaning it had not been tampered with. Steele and his guard went around the left side of the core, while Jordan and his guard went around the right side.

"Keep your eyes open," Steele said. "Engineering goes up several levels. There are a lot of places for the Udelan to hide."

Just then, a whistly swirling sound came from the floor above. The guard behind Steele was struck with a glowing orange beam – a trademark phaser blast. Steele ducked and rolled away. He came up with his phaser pointed at the platform. He could just make out the shape of the Udelan before it ducked behind a wall.

"Marcus!" Steele shouted, gesturing emphatically in the direction of the Udelan. Jordan and the remaining guard found a lift unit and used it to get to the next floor. Steele fired a shot near the wall where the Udelan was hiding and then moved to the other side of the room.

Phaser fire near the warp core was extremely dangerous; one poorly-aimed shot could cause a breach and destroy the ship. Steele watched from ground level as Jordan moved along the upper floor and approached the Udelan's hiding place. The other guard had gone the opposite way to surround him.

"I think we have him surrounded, sir," Jordan called down to Steele.

Steele nodded and walked into a more open part of the ground floor. "Listen to me!" he shouted up to the Udelan. "I don't know if you can understand me, but I'm going to say this anyway. I'm Commander Kirby Steele of the Federation starship _Silver Hawk_. I know you've probably never seen a ship like this before, and I expect you're frightened right now. But we can resolve this peacefully and without any more people getting hurt. Just put down your weapon and give yourself up. We won't hurt you, I promise. Just come quietly and -"

The Udelan quickly sprang from his hiding place and shot the security officer. He fell backward over the safety railing and landed on the floor beside Steele, dead on impact. Steele whipped around, his phaser aimed at the Udelan. The Udelan had his phaser aimed down at Steele, but was unaware that Jordan had moved around behind him. Jordan wrapped his left arm around the Udelan's neck and delivered a punch to the lower back with his right hand. The Udelan collapsed to the floor, dropping his phaser over the railing in the process. Jordan released his grip and delivered a short phaser burst to the back of the Udelan. It lay motionless on the floor in a stunned state from the phaser.

"Nice to know a kidney punch works on a Udelan," Jordan said. "Are you okay, Commander?"

"I'm good," said Steele. He looked around at the bodies of the two guards who had been shot. "Unfortunately we couldn't get through this without some casualties."

Jordan slung the Udelan over his shoulder and carried him to the lift unit. "Should I take him to sickbay or go straight to the brig?" he asked Steele.

"Sickbay first," Steele said. "Make sure you take allthe other guards with you. I don't want him escaping again. Have them bring these bodies too."

Jordan looked at Steele and saw the disappointment in his face. He cleared his throat before speaking. "I'll notify their next of kin," he said.

"No," said Steele. "Thank you, Marcus, but I think I should be the one to do it."

Jordan briefly opened his mouth to speak, but decided against it and simply nodded as he walked away.

The comm unit chirped to life, startling Steele a bit. "Winchester to _Silver Hawk_," said the captain's voice, "the ion storm has passed. Commander Skye has completed the system upgrade for the facility and we're ready to beam back to the ship."

Steele paused to collect himself before responded. "Understood, Captain," he said. "I'll be in the transporter room to greet you."

"I hope you weren't too bored while I was gone, Kirby," Winchester said.

Steele sighed. "Not at all, Captain. In fact, I've got quite a tale to tell you when you get back."

* * *

_Captain's Log, supplemental_

_The upgrade to the facility on Litix Alpha has been completed successfully and the _Silver Hawk _has left orbit. Commander Steele has been informing me of the incident that occurred during my absence. I have notified Starfleet of the situation, and they have directed us to take the Udelan to Starbase 339 where he is to be examined and, hopefully, integrated into a new life._

* * *

Steele sat on the couch in Winchester's ready room. Winchester was at his desk reading a datapad. "This is quite an extraordinary circumstance," Winchester said, "both for Starfleet and the Udelan. I can't imagine what it would be like to realize that three hundred years have passed you by and you're the only one of your race left."

"Supposedly," said Steele, "there may be some genetic descendants on other worlds. It could be possible to send him to one of those planets and he'd fit right in."

Winchester looked at Steele. His first officer was always good for a smile – as he was himself – but he noticed a much gloomier look in Steele's eyes. There was also a visible frown on his face. "What's on your mind, Kirby?" he asked.

"I'm still thinking about those two men we lost trying to apprehend the Udelan," Steele said. "Not to mention the young woman from sickbay who died, too."

"Sometimes that happens," Winchester said. "Encountering new life is a central part of our job in Starfleet. Sometimes, the beings we find aren't completely friendly. It's never good to lose a crewman, but it's something we're all taught to be prepared for when we're in the academy."

"Too bad they never teach you how to deal with it," Steele said.

"Well, ideally we'd have ship's counselor for you to talk to," Winchester replied, "but it seems Admiral Tomlinson forgot to give us one when she assigned us the _Silver Hawk_. Maybe we can recruit someone at Starbase 339 when we get there." He rose from his desk and walked over to the replicator. "In the meantime," he said, "you and I can have a drink. I wrote a program for Andorian ale into the replicator. Hopefully it tastes as good as what I had on Litix Alpha." He tapped some buttons and the replicator buzzed to life. The reception tray glowed a bright white. When the light receded, two bananas appeared in the tray.

Winchester groaned. "Remind me to have a talk with Commander Skye when we get to the starbase as well," he said, tossing a banana to Steele.

THE END


End file.
